"There is no greatness where simplicity, goodness and truth
are absent."
Leo Tolstoy

Friday, November 02, 2012

Are Canadians Conservatives?

Stephen Harper likes to say that Conservative values are Canadian values. Lawrence Martin, however, calls that assertion into question. Recent polls which indicate that we would overwhelmingly vote for Barack Obama -- and that we'd seriously consider Justin Trudeau for the highest office in the land -- suggest that Canadians haven't moved as far to the right as Mr. Harper thinks they have:

Obama’s progressive values strike a chord north of the border, whether
they be on social issues, war and peace, health care or the economy. He
speaks to a rational — as opposed to an ideological — way forward. He
speaks a moderate language that sounds quite Canadian — as in the
Canada that was, before the arrival of the new Harper Conservatives.

And, although the younger Trudeau has not as yet nade a lot of policy announcements, he's not robotically following in his father's footsteps:

On the second day of his campaign he went to Alberta and trashed his old
man’s National Energy Program. He has been pointed on environment
policy and in some other areas. He has yet to say much on democratic
reform but his camp is looking at it as a possible major policy area for
him. He is the candidate of next-generation appeal and a plan to remake
Canadian democracy would fit that rubric nicely. But we shouldn’t hold
our breath for him to come out with anything that amounts to much more
than tinkering.

It will be awhile before Justin gets specific. But make no mistake. When he does get specific, he will accuse Stephen Harper of casting the next generation to the wind. Mr. Harper will have a hard time deflecting that accusation.

Switch - Kill social programs, provide a captive workforce. Smaller government except for the police state. Switch social programs for corporate welfare. and always SHOOT the messenger, Publicly, messily, and loudly to teach any considering delivering the message in the future.

I wish I shared your optimism for a Liberal renaissance, Owen. I suspect today's Liberals lack an understanding of the impacts Ignatieff had on the party, transforming it into Conservative-Lite.

Both Liberals and the NDP were instrumental, albeit somewhat unwittingly, in helping Steve Harper shift Canada's political centre well to the right, well beyond any public tide change.

It is hardly challenging to stay well to the left of Harper today and yet remain centre-right. We need an Axworthy, not this flawed vestige of the former Trudeau.

There's too much at stake for faux liberalism. Everything from climate change to every cancerous aspect of inequality (wealth, income and opportunity) to resource policy, to strengthening Canadian society and much more.

Events are overtaking us on all these fronts and we're writing the future of generations to come.

I think the Liberal party is badly in need of a true giant, perhaps someone of the calibre of Louise Arbour.

Canada is more like a Communist country. Democracy, Civil Rights and Liberties, Freedom of Speech, all vanishing. Human Rights will be on Harper's hit list too. There is nothing Conservative about Canada, what-so-ever. Canada is now putrid, rotten to the core with corruption. Typical in a dictatorship.

All dictators are childish. Hitler used to jump up and down in his rages and scream at the top of his voice. Stalin was so paranoid, he would just send out a blanket order, to murder everyone he thought his enemies. Even his own relatives. We know what the Italian people thought of Mussolini. A dictators paranoia, is the most dangerous of all their traits. Harper is a name caller and has hissy fits, when he doesn't get his own way. Harper isn't called, spiteful Stevie for nothing. You can't rationalize someone who isn't rational. Harper isn't rational.

Ah, Judy, Judy, Judy. Yes I remember her well. I spoke with her several times while playing journo in Ottawa. Now I'm trying to remember if she ever succeeded in quitting smoking. No idea why that would cross my mind today.

Ignatieff made my skin crawl when he proclaimed the Tar Sands "the beating heart" of Canada's economy for the 21st century. Talk about a Czarist throwback. He never could understand that it was Canada's middle class, not some bitumen bogs, that were and would always be the beating heart of our economy.

A succession of politicians have laid us low in the belief that, without bitumen, we're a second-rate country. It's as though we're too stunted or lazy to reach past the low-hanging fruit. I despise that mentality. It can bring no good to our country and, in my view, forecloses the country's promise for future generations.

It's a false fiscal prudence. In Saskatchewan for example the right wing is simultaneously planning to cut 15% of the public service while talking at every turn about how Saskatchewan is booming and growing.

So do we fire 15% of policemen? Doctors and nurses? Teachers? Highway repairmen? Crop insurance agents? And if 15% of some groups aren't fired, then maybe 30% of other groups will need to be to make up the slack. In a province with a growing population making higher demands on government services.

About Me

A retired English teacher, I now write about public policy and, occasionally, personal experience. I leave it to the reader to determine if I practice what I preached to my students for thirty-two years.